Éveil / Training game

Éveil is a game concept for children with spoken language disorders and children with learning disabilities. The application teaches them hand gestures that helps them to pronounce words. Éveil was designed as a research tool for Amélie Rochet Capellan and Marion Dohen's studies in cognitive sciences at CNRS (Centre national de recherche scientifique, France).
Just like apprentice sorcerers, the players are guided by a mentor called Magnus. This magician teaches the players magical gestures and spells for awaking mythical creatures. The game development involved close analysis of children with Down syndrome in order to adapt the game to specific needs.

By analysing Down syndrome children needs, I highlighted that using tangible objects or providing positive feedbacks throughout the game could help them to learn better.

From the needs, I explored several game mechanics and interactions that could help to learn gestures and progress through the game.

As I wanted to explore the several solutions, I used game mechanics for different user cases and gameplays relevant for learning processes.

I finally had the opportunity to do a play testing with a child. The aim at this point was to check if the gameplay and gameflow could maintain its focus on the learning process and if he could learn easily the gestures.